Tuesday, 9 December 2008

The War On Christmas

To say I'm not a fan of the Irish bishops would be an understatement. I'm generally not fans of lying, parasitical pedophile-protectors. Their main media outlet, the Veritas chain, also falls under my stern gaze of disapproval. But now I leap to their defence. Why?

Well, they tried to place an Advertisement on RTE and the Broadcasting Commission Of Ireland (BCI) banned it, because, wait for it, it 'might cause offence'. And what might cause offence? The BCI highlighted three lines from the ad. The phrases were: “Christmas, aren’t we forgetting something? - Why not give a gift that means more? - So to give a gift that means more”.

In the name of Jesus - literally - who in their right mind could take offence at this? As a devout secularist it doesn't bother me one iota, and I don't know anyone else who'd take a different position. My own suspicion of course lies with the Religion Of Peace, whose adherents now comprise the second largest religion in Ireland (from virtually zero 20 years ago).

And even if it did 'offend' any of us, so what? My considered response to anyone who takes offence is 'go fuck yourself'. In any event, in my view, the Bishops have an enterprise that's competing in a dwindling market and they're entitled to advertise in support of market share, like any other commercial enterprise. But, also like any other commercial enterprise, they should be taxed on the profits (prophets?) and/or pay an entertainment tax.

The only good thing is that this piece of lunacy has attracted an almost uniformly hostile response, from every source. The Religion Of Peace has been notably silent, I might add.

11 comments:

Re "lying parasitical paedophile protectors" are you aware that 8 Irish Bishops (including 3 out of 4 Archbishops) have beeen the targets of lying allegations of child abuse or covering up child abuse? The only two widely known cases are those of John Charles McQuaid (because of John Cooney's biography) and Bishop Eamon Casey. In the latter case the nutcase who accused him had made similar allegations against several other people but the media publicised the Casey accusation only.

The following is the first of the 8 claims - and it brought down the Irtish Government in 1994!

This summary comes from British historian Richard Websters article "States of Fear, The Redress Board and Ireland's Folly" on http://www.richardwebster.net/brynestynireland.html

"The beginnings of the story go back to 1994 when the authorities in Northern Ireland sought the extradition from the Republic of Father Brendan Smyth, a Catholic priest who was facing a number of counts of child sexual abuse to which he would eventually plead guilty. It would appear that he had previously been protected against allegations by his own Norbertine order, which had moved him from parish to parish as complaints arose, and failed to alert the police.

Perhaps because of the age of the allegations, which went back twenty years, there was a delay of several months during which the Irish attorney general took no action in relation to the extradition request. Unfounded reports began to circulate in Dublin that the process was being deliberately delayed in response to a request made at the highest level by the Catholic Church. An Irish opposition deputy, Pat Rabbitte, then referred in parliament to the possible existence of a document that would ‘rock the foundations of this society to its very roots’. He apparently had in mind the rumoured existence of a letter written by the Primate of All Ireland, Cardinal Cathal Daly, to the attorney general in Dublin. In this letter the Cardinal had supposedly interceded on behalf of Father Brendan Smyth and requested the delay in his extradition which had in fact taken place.

No evidence has been produced that any such letter ever existed. Yet, as a direct result of the rumours which now swept the country, confidence in the ruling establishment was undermined and the Fianna Fail government of Albert Reynolds fell, amidst talk of a dark conspiracy involving politicians, members of Opus Dei, the Knights of Columbus and others. This conspiracy was allegedly seeking to cover up the activities of paedophile priests."

Richard Webster is, I think, an atheist. However he has written extensively about false accusations against LAY social workers in the UK and he recognises the similarity with our Irish witch-hunt.

The thuggish behaviour of the Broadcasting Commisssion of Ireland is a (minor) manifestation of the witch-hunt started by Pat Rabbitte 14 years ago.

Since some people may still be reluctant to believe that Albert Reynolds Government fell in 1994 SOLELY AS A RESULT OF ANTI-CLERICAL HYSTERIA, it is useful to see how the authorities in the UK viewed the issue. They were the ones who wanted to extradite Father Brendan Smyth. If there was a conspiracy between Church and State in Ireland to protect Smyth, then the UK authorities were the targets of said conspiracy.

The following are extracts from the House of Commons Hansard Debates for 21 November 1994:

Mr. Mackinlay: To ask the Attorney-General what representations his Department received from the Catholic Church in respect of Brendan Smyth; and if he will make a statement.The Attorney-General: None...........Opus DeiMr. Mackinlay: To ask the Attorney-General what is his policy in relation to employing members of Opus Dei in his Department.The Attorney-General: There is no specific policy in relation to the secondment of Opus Dei members to my Department. The civil service does not discriminate on grounds of religion.

If it were not so politically incorrect, one might imagine the Whitehall mandarins being quietly amused at the antics of their ridiculous ex-colonial subjects."New caught sullen peoples, half devil and half child" indeed - should they ever have let us go?

Kilbarry - I dont doubt that there have been and are dozens of false claims against clergy, with catastrophic impact on those involved - I know one such tragedy at fairly close hand.

However, my point is that the bishops used every technique imaginable, lies, obstruction, threats, evasions, to protect real offenders, such as Brendan Smyth, so they're guilty of being pedophile protectors in my book.

And by the way, by devaluing denial, they inadvertantly provided the context in which spurious claims could appear credible.